Performance Anxiety

Performance Anxiety in its various forms is one of the most common phobias in the United Kingdom.It is a fairly broad term. For some, it refers to the ability to perform well under pressure – like playing a sport, making a presentation, or excelling in public. For others, it refers to sexual performance, where those that have anxiety tend to worry about how they’ll perform to such a degree that they either experience some type of sexual dysfunction or fail to enjoy their sexual experiences.

Presentations and Performance Under Pressure

Presenters and anyone that does anything under the public’s eye may find themselves with performance anxiety. The causes of this are fairly simple:

Mild social anxiety.

Inexperience in public.

Strong distaste for failure

Anything in life can cause these emotions. Some people are born with a mild performance anxiety, or grew up naturally shy so the idea of talking in public is upsetting to them. Others are prone to distress over the idea of being judged, possibly because of experiences in the past, upbringing, or bullying.

Sexual Performance

The origins of sexual performance anxiety are a bit more obvious. We live in a society that puts considerable pressure on how people perform in the bedroom, the need to please their partner, and so on. Combine this with inexperience, a bad sexual experience, or perceived trouble at finding sexual partners and it is no surprise that some people develop performance anxiety in sexual situations.

Hypnotherapy and cognitive Therapy for all forms of performance anxiety

Hypnotherapy for performance anxiety is a very effective therapy. During hypnosis you are in a deeply relaxed state, during which we work to have you see yourself performing well in your mind whilst focusing on relaxing the body deeply, this helps ‘recondition’ the brain to feel relaxed when performing.

Cognitive Behavioural therapy helps you to challenge and change negative , unhelpful beliefs you may have about yourself regarding your ability and confidence to perform. It then helps you adopt new more helpful beliefs that support and serve you. Imagining yourself performing confidently and in a relaxed fashion has an enormously beneficial effect on the on the mind. The more you learn how to do this by using hypnosis combined with C.B.T, the more at ease you will feel when performing.